Why snow rates run three times summer rates
Snow hours cost more because a snow company recovers its overhead in about four months instead of eight or nine. One landscaper in our research charges about $80 per man-hour for summer work and $245 an hour for snow, for exactly that reason: there are far fewer hours to recover the year's costs.
The clean way to think about it is to run snow as its own business with its own overhead. A landscaper who plows at the summer rate is asking the winter to ride free on the lawn customers, and the numbers stop working the first heavy year.
280 hours to earn a winter
A plow company's billable year is short, and that is what sets the break-even rate. Take a market with 14 snowfalls a winter at about 20 hours of plowing each: that is 280 hours to earn the whole year's money.
The sample company goes through the same sum. Its yearly overhead, led by liability insurance with slip-and-fall cover, yard and salt storage and marketing, plus both people's wages and payroll costs, divided by the hours actually spent on sites, gives $83.71. Waiting on storms, loading salt and fixing the plow are paid hours no one bills, which is why the rate sits far above any wage.
The formula itself is the same in every trade and is explained once in the true hourly rate guide. Put your own storm hours into the free true hourly rate calculator.
Truck, skid steer or shovel: what each hour should bill
A plow truck hour has to bill much more than a shovel hour, because the truck brings its own payment, fuel and upkeep. A truck and plow together can easily cost well over $60,000, and every dollar of that has to come back in the few hundred plowing hours a year.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What was priced | Hourly rate owners charge |
| 2 | Plow truck | about $110 to $165 |
| 3 | Skid steer | about $185 |
| 4 | Shoveler | about $60 |
| 5 | Sidewalk clearing | about $85 to $90 |
| 6 | All-in snow rate, commercial contractor | about $245 |
Round numbers like these are a pattern, not a price list: every piece of equipment gets its own hourly rate, and a push is the sum of what was on site. The sample does the same, charging each task at the break-even rate plus the equipment it uses.
How much markup goes on a snow push
The sample adds a markup on salt, a small cushion and a profit line to full cost, and keeps 29.8% of the $380.12 push price. That takes about a 42.5% markup on cost, the gap the markup vs margin guide explains.
Salt carries the biggest markup in snow. Bulk salt bought at $80 to $100 a ton commonly sells for at least $200 a ton applied, and often around $240, roughly 2 to 2.5 times cost. The sample charges the spreading time as labour and truck time already, so it uses a smaller markup on the salt itself, but it never passes salt through at cost.
Some owners target about 40% net profit on snow and keep overhead light to get there. Because the sample's full cost already pays the owner a wage, its 29.8% is closer to net profit than gross margin; overhead and profit covers the difference.
Is snow plowing profitable? The sample push and the plaza that lost
Snow plowing pays when the price is built from the short season, and it loses when a site takes longer than the bid. The sample push leaves $113.36 above every cost, about $1,700 over a 15-push season on one 20,000 sq ft lot.
Spread over every minute of the push, drive and paperwork included, the crew earns about $165.52 per labour hour, roughly double the $83.71 break-even. That lands inside the $110 to $245 range owners charge.
The sample Job Log shows the other side. One plaza took more hours than its bid across the winter and made a loss instead of a profit. Logging real hours per site after each storm, the job costing habit, is how you catch that in January.
Per 1,000 sq ft: checking an hourly price against the lot
A price per 1,000 sq ft is a check on your hourly math, not a way to set it. A $245 plow-only push on a 1-acre lot is about $5.60 per 1,000 sq ft; a full-service season with walks, salt and ice melt works out near $19 per 1,000 sq ft a push, and the sample lot lands at almost the same figure.
Your number moves with plow speed. A 9 ft plow might do about an acre to an acre and a quarter an hour on an open lot, while an 8 ft plow on a lot with islands and parked cars might manage half that. Time your own sites for a storm or two before you trust any per-foot number.
Shoveler and plow driver pay: what our research doesn't say
None of the snow owners in our research said what they pay a shoveler or plow driver per hour, so we don't publish a wage. The rates above are what owners charge customers.
Workers' comp for night work on ice, around trucks, can be costly; get your real rate from your carrier. The full per-push price, with salt, tiers and the season, is on how much to charge for snow plowing.